It means that after you turn it off, it spits and sputters trying to keep running.

 

Most distributors have a stop bushing to adjust the total advance added to the initial.

Or it's set electronically on the newer ones.

 

my car runs _way_ better with 20 degrees advance. I was just too scared to go there and since my distributor advances 20 mechanically I was at 40 total. Again too afraid to hurt her i brought her back to 16. now the vacuum advance diaphragm died and I'm saving for a Crane Distributor (if they do make them again). i'm kinda deaf to ping. sometimes I believe I hear something that might be it,. but I am not sure if that's it. mostly under very light accelleration going in 3rd gear. I hve taken the rotor off the distributor and went down as far as I could but I couldn't find any adjustment like clips or springs. Another reason I want a different one.
As for the dieseling ... i usually see that on higher compression engines when the carb butterfly is too far open at idle

 

Like 67mustang302 said, most good distributors have adjustable timing curves and total advance stops. As I asked earlier, what dizzy (distributor) are you running?

Like Kalli mentioned, if you know 37* is the most your car will handle without detonation issues, now figure out what initial timing your car likes. If that is 18*, then you know you need to set the initial to 18* with a 19* advance stop. Math works! There will be a definite level where your engine will not want to fire up or shut off if the initial timing is too advanced. There will also be a definite level where at WOT, you car will ping and rattle like crazy (detonation) when the timing is too advanced. Just be sure you are doing the WOT pull above the rpm level where you total timing comes in (i.e. 4000rpm or so). Once your initial and total advance are set, the rest is just seeing what curve your engine likes the best.

 

very true.
sometimes i have a feeling along the lines of "the more i know the less i know". came to this forum with rudimentary basics and the more i learn the more i need to know :-9

 

Urban...good explanation thank you

Im running a Mallory Unilite

So I base the initial timing on how the car starts?

 

eZ, yes you set the initial timing based on how your car reacts to starting and turning off. You want a good crisp fire off and you want the motor to turn off when the key is turned off with no chug a chug a dieseling.

Is you Mallory mechanical advance only or does it have a vacuum advance module as well? If it has a vacuum advance, you need to disconnect vacuum to the dizzy and plug the port on the carb to set your initial timing.

 

the mallory is mechanical...no vacuum. My original thought was that initial timing needed to be set according to your cam duration. 220 at 12-14 240 at 14-16 and below 260 at 16-18. with my cam duration at 282 I thought I would need about 18 degrees but still trying to keep total in the 36 range.

But then there is compression, air fuel ratio, aluminum heads...Im just trying to make the car safe until I get my new carb and head to the dyno shop.

 

dynoshop would be a great help :-) we have none around.
anyway, if you had 16 initial and 38 total, your mechanical advance is 22. if you want to bring it to 18 initial and 36 total you'll have to change that to 18.
Check if you can find info on your distributors manual how that can be done.
IO have a unilite currently and pulled the top, rotor spring plate off it, but still can't figure how it can be set. some unilite manuals give instructions that don't fit my distributor, maybe you're more lucky

 

Where did you get that information? If you ever went by duration to set initial timing, I would think it would be based on duration@.05 since that is the standard to compare cams by and not advertised duration which can be somewhat deceptive. That being said, I have never heard that before.

The Mallory distributor part number is the key to how much advance they have. I believe part numbers ending in 1 have 24* of timing and 05 have 20* of timing. I do not think most fo the Mallory distributors have adjustable timing curves. I looks like the models ending in Y do have adjustable timing. I got this off the website.

"Distributor part numbers that end with the letter “H” have this type of advance. Mallory Advance Curve Change Kit Part No. 29014 is required to change the amount and rate of advance. The kit includes degree keys that range from 14° to 28°. Five sets of springs are also included, with instructions to plot advance curves."

Personally, unless you have a Mallory Y version dizzy that you can modify, I would switch to a MSD. They are very customizable.